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Road Ends cover art

Road Ends

Written by: Mary Lawson
Narrated by: Ishan Davé, Jess Salgueiro, John Fleming
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Publisher's Summary

He listened as their voices faded into the rumble of the falls. He was thinking about the lynx. The way it had looked at him, acknowledging his existence, then passing out of his life like smoke.... It was the first thing - the only thing - that had managed, if only for a moment, to displace from his mind the image of the child. He had carried that image with him for a year now, and it had been a weight so great that sometimes he could hardly stand.

Mary Lawson’s beloved novels, Crow Lake and The Other Side of the Bridge, have delighted legions around the world. The fictional Northern Ontario town of Struan, buried in the winter snows, is the vivid backdrop to her breathtaking new novel. 

Road Ends brings us a family unravelling in the aftermath of tragedy: Edward Cartwright, struggling to escape the legacy of a violent past; Emily, his wife, cloistered in her room with yet another new baby, increasingly unaware of events outside the bedroom door; Tom, their eldest son, 25 years old but home again, unable to come to terms with the death of a friend; and capable, formidable Megan, the sole daughter in a household of eight sons, who for years held the family together but has finally broken free and gone to England, to try to make a life of her own.

Road Ends is Mary Lawson at her best. In this masterful, enthralling, tender novel, which ranges from the Ontario silver rush of the early 1900s to swinging London in the 1960s, she gently reveals the intricacies and anguish of family life, the push and pull of responsibility and individual desire, the way we can face tragedy, and in time, hope to start again.

©2014 Mary Lawson (P)2021 Knopf Canada

What the critics say

National Best Seller

“The frozen landscape, which might fill some with dread, opens a rich world for Lawson.... It is a beautiful novel, with the psychological twists and turns of each character gently and poignantly unfurled.” (The Globe and Mail

“Every Canadian student should be reading Mary Lawson novels - starting with Crow Lake and now including her newest accomplishment, Road Ends.... Like all great writers - and Lawson is among the finest - she tells her story in a deceptively simple and straightforward way, but one that resonates with anyone who has ever struggled with doing the right thing by a family member despite a desperate longing to escape that burden. She humanizes even the least sympathetic of her charges.” (Toronto Star

“Mary Lawson finds literary gold in the hard landscape of the Canadian Shield.” (Ottawa Citizen

What listeners say about Road Ends

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  • cj
  • 2023-12-12

Slow pace

It’s beautifully written, but moves along so slowly that I often struggled to stay awake while listening. It really is a non eventful story of a very odd family. Not sure why I didn’t appreciate its full value, I think because the very not bright characters were frustratingly ineffectual. I wanted to slap them all and finish reading.

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Best book in a long time!!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Such an interesting story and so effectively structured!! Great job!!
The narrators were also exceptional!!

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Now One of my top 10

Loved it so much. The emotion was raw, gave me goosebumps. Cheers to Mary Lawson.

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Mary Lawson has become my favourite author

I don’t know how I had missed hearing about Mary Lawson until recently. I have now listened to all four of Mary Lawson’s novels and have loved every one of them. Her characters have such authenticity - probably as a result of her background in psychology. She has a beautiful gift for foreshadowing which means the stories are gripping right from the beginning and her descriptions are vivid. These stories are so Canadian - one of the nicest things about them.
I read Road Ends last of all and was delighted that as in all her books some characters resurface. As in all hat books I found myself dreading the thought of finishing the book because I would miss the characters so much. I did find the ending sad but filled with promise of good happenings ahead so I hope there will be a sequel to this one.

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